by
Dawn Foster
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[...] Lord Cromer was particularly keen that veiled Egyptian women should de-jab, arguing that Islam's monstrous mistreatment of women was holding Egypt back from entering the enlightened and idealised version of Western civilisation that bastion of women's rights Cromer claimed to inhabit. Back home, Cromer was the founder and head of the Men's League for Opposing Women's Suffrage. [...]
just, perfect
on Victorian males who use the language of feminism for colonial purposes while of course fighting against feminist demands back home
Obsession with lifestyle--whether aspects of mainstream culture are feminist--turns attention back on the self rather than women's position in society and attendant life chances. As Linda R. Hirschman puts it:
"Choice feminism", the shadowy remnant of the original movement, tells women that their choices, everyone's choices, the incredibly constrained "choices" they make, are good choices. Everyone says if feminism failed it was because it was too radical. But we know--and surely the real radical, Betty Friedan, knew--that it wasn't because feminism was too radical. It was because feminism wasn't radical enough. A movement that stands for everything ultimately stands for nothing.
[...] The obsession with whether or not women identify as feminists assumes that this is a reasonable measure of how many people believe in the general aims and objectives of the ideology. But it is a preoccupation that relies on identity labels more than any analysis of shared values. And any identity can and will be co-opted for political gain: hence we see Nick Clegg [...] posing in a "This is what a feminist looks like" t-shirt [...] Meanwhile, David Cameron was chastised for refusing to wear one, as if a t-shirt sent from Whistles could absolve him of all his policy sins. [...]
I think there are other factors to consider here (like, why did he refuse to wear one? obviously it won't absolve him of anything but the refusal may indicate more worrying truths ... which I think we already suspect anyway) but she makes a good point
Ultimately, all Sheryl Sandberg's vision of leaning in offers is an OK job, and the opportunity to see your children at the same time. In terms of ambition, it's sorely lacking. Both aims are meagre and quite frankly dull, if that's all a dream amounts to. Fighting for equality is often misunderstood as simply being offered the same terms as men on paper. In many ways we already have that. What we don't have is emancipation: the opportunity to be free of social and external shackles that perpetuate inequality and women's lower position. [...]